Author: Christopher R. Dorr
Date: 07:17:43 07/27/01
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On July 25, 2001 at 23:00:57, John Dahlem wrote: >Because I can't afford them both. If you have used both products, is there one >that you think is superior? I do not own CB8, but I do have CB7, and CA 6. I use Chess Assistant exclusively now (and prefer it) for the following reasons: 1. The tree in CA i lightening fast. Given the way I study openings, the tree speed is somewhat important to me. CBs tree is adequate, but CAs is brilliant. 2. Find Operations as well seem quicker in CA, but header and position searches. Their capabilities are relatively the same, but I prefer the speedier CA. 3. The playing interface included in CA. I didn't think I'd use it much, but I rarely play and programs outside of the CA interface anymore. It's very convenient to study openings, come to a critical position, and then simply click on 'Play Engine' and start playing *any* Winboard engine, MCS engine, or Tiger. You can switch engines during the game as well; I'm a USCF Life Master, and constantly get crushed by Tiger and Crafty, so if I am studying something new, and need a somewhat weaker opponent, I can drop down a list box, and switch to Faile or Dragon. 4. The Blunder checking feature is a very fast and convenient way to quickly look at a game. 5. The ICC Interface. Again, this is a feature that I didn't think I would use, but often do. When I'm just logging on to play some lightening, I use CClient. But for slower times, and for watching, I use CA. It's fascinating and instructive to be able to watch a game between 2 GMs, and have CA's tree onscreen. You see move orders, percentages for wins/losses/draws, and transpositions changing in real time. Additionally, you can also see the engine analysis during realtime when watching the game. Surprisingly fascinating. The only thing that I feel that Chessbase does significantly better is the Opening Report Feature (Actually, the freeware SCID does a better job on this too....take a look at SCID. It's a great program). Chessbase's Opening Report feature gives much more detail than CAs. It tells you about strategic plans, piece placement, etc. for any given position in it's database. CA gives you *some* of the same information, but CB really does a better job. Another thing in CAs favor is it's price. When I bought CA, it was significantly cheaper than CB, *and* it included Tiger 14 and Tiger Gambit 2. To get a similar strength playing opponent for CB, you would have to shell out additional money for Fritz. Overall, I feel that CA is the better value. Chris
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